Embracing DIVERSITY
"Hand in Hand" - One of several children’s drawings brought back from Iran by Vivien Feyer in 2007.
Imagine a society that doesn't just tolerate our ever-expanding diversity but cherishes it, that recognizes our inescapable mutuality, honors everyone's inherent worth and creates a culture where everyone can thrive.
This is exactly what Civil Rights visionaries called the "Beloved Community". And given all the ways we've changed, learning to become one has never been more necessary.
If there's one thing we must never forget, it's that societies don't have lives of their own. They live because the people who are part of them, believe. We infuse them with love, imbue them with life and nurture them. We sacrifice for their well-being and rally to their defense.
We create their institutions and infrastructure and entrust them to act on our behalf. And because we believe, we’re bound to and care deeply for the members of our societal family; both individually and as a collective. When those same people stop believing, those societies begin to die. But that doesn't have to be our future. We can build a better one if we can find it within ourselves to be our better selves, embracing our own diversity, and becoming a society where each of us does the same for all of us.
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“But the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of a beloved community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this kind of understanding and goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles.”
Martin Luther King